Gothic literature developed at the end of the eighteenth century during a time of social, political, and economic unrest. Therefore, it continues to be described as a reactionary genre focused on "returning repressed societal fears to our attention so we might expel them." The period associated with European Gothic fiction begins with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto and concludes with Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer. 

Eighteenth-Century Gothic Literature 

Female Gothic Literature articulated women’s dissatisfaction with the patriarchy and tackles the position of the maternal within society but placed the Gothic at the center of the story. By the 1990s, however, "the term was increasingly being qualified and there has been an ongoing debate as to whether the Female Gothic constitutes a separate literary genre." 

Female Gothic Literature 

- Eighteenth-Century Gothic Literature
- Female Gothic Literature 

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Gothic Literature or Gothic Horror, as it was called in the 20th century, is a literary aesthetic. The name is a reference to the Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of early Gothic novels. 

Gothic Literature

Gothic Literature contains stories focused on the dark, eerie, and mysterious, often containing elements of terror, horror, and the macabre. Common themes include power, confinement, and isolation. This genre led to the rise of pulp magazines in the early twentieth century, the modern horror genre, and the Southern Gothic. 

Gothic Literature Themes

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Gothic Literature References

- The Castle of Otranto 
- The Mysteries of Udolpho
- The Monk
- Frankenstein
- The Picture of Dorian Gray 
- Carmilla
- Dracula

Gothic Literature Examples

Gothic literature is associated with the Gothic Revival architecture of the same era. English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark era with harsh laws and torture.  

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